


The Man Comes Around

by DeadBart



Category: Misfits (TV 2009)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Continuation, F/M, Fix-It, Future Fic, Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:29:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26589652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeadBart/pseuds/DeadBart
Summary: Facing a grim future, Simon makes a decision that will alter destiny.At the edge of this grim future, Rudy and the gang discover the beginnings of a crisis that could threaten not just Wertham, but the entire world.
Relationships: Jess/Rudy Wade, Kelly Bailey/Seth, Simon Bellamy/Alisha Daniels
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	1. The Past is a Foreign Country

**Author's Note:**

> This is something of a fix fic, but it is fully canon compliant. Nothing that happens here will contradict what was seen on screen.

**THE PAST**

Simon knew this place would one day be home, but at present it felt as hospitable as some dead alien planet. He didn’t even know where to begin with the repairs that would be necessary to get this dingy storage space looking like the Batcave his future self had left behind.

His future self. Not so future anymore. He looked at his hands in wonder. For a long time he’d imagined “Future Simon” as some other man. Like an older brother he had to live up to. But now he found himself very literally in this other man’s shoes. In his skin. In some sense he felt transformed. As if he’d left “Past Simon” behind in the future and taken on a new identity. From the perspective of everyone back in the future, Past Simon had essentially died with Alisha.

Simon considered for the first time that his family would never know what had become of him. He supposed that after all of his troubles, they’d think he’d committed suicide. He supposed he had.

These thoughts weighed heavy, but for the moment, Simon had nobody to share them with. In time he’d have Alisha, but that was a long way off. He had no idea if his other self had had his own friends or if he'd just waited alone to carry out his plan.

He dropped onto the mattress he’d dragged in and stared at the busted ceiling. For now all he had was his costume, his phone, and an old laptop he’d quietly stolen from his family home while his other self was out. That and a lot of time to kill. He leaned against the wall and flipped the laptop open.

The desktop was cluttered with icons. Various things he’d made or downloaded years ago. Old school assignments, some of his early videos, a few aborted attempts at science fiction stories, and a folder of old games and emulators. He clicked open a file labelled “ZSNES”.

A simple emulator opened, still displaying the last game he’d played on this computer. An old role-playing game called Chrono Trigger about a hero who travels through time to save the world. Simon smiled at this blip of synchronicity and started the game, pausing for just a moment to consider the irony of distracting himself with a nostalgia trip to forget he’d literally travelled to the past.

As the long night wore on, the laptop screen was the only light in the near-empty apartment. Simon spent hours plowing through the game, lost in its plot. Near the end, something he didn’t remember happened: The hero was killed. Broken from his fugue, Simon brooded as he considered the parallel to his own situation as the little sprite dropped dead. But then the game continued.

The hero’s friends played a clever trick. They returned to the moment of their failure and replaced the hero with a copy, saving the original without visibly altering the moment they’d lived through. Their past selves still believed they’d watched him die. The villain still believed him defeated. But he lived. And the story continued. They’d cheated time without paradox.

Simon closed the laptop and stared into the dark apartment. The heavy thoughts that had plagued him earlier vanished. His future self’s confidence suddenly made sense.

He had work to do.

* * *

**THE PRESENT**

The feeling was horribly familar.

Lightning arced through Rudy’s body. He felt his bones crackle and his blood boil. He could see his friends burning with the same light.

The storm had returned.

As quickly as the pain had begun, it ended. Rudy crashed to the community centre roof with a groan.

“Oh fuck. You okay, Jess? Everyone alright?” he called.

“Jesus Christ, what are the odds that happens to a guy twice in the space of a year?” Finn moaned as he stumbled to his feet.

“Well we were standing dramatically on a rooftop in the middle of a storm talking shit about being superheroes, so I guess you get what you pay for, eh?” Alex jabbed.

“Jess?! Where’s Jess?” Rudy called out again, looking around. The roof access door flew open and Jess ran out, eyes wild.

“I just fell through the fucking roof!” she shouted.

“How can you have fallen through the roof? There’s no hole.” Abbey noted, gesturing at the slightly scorched, but fully intact roof.

“I don’t know I was like a fucking ghost or something! I just fell through the floor like it wasn’t there!” Rudy stepped forward to pull Jess into a hug.

“You’re alright love. See?” he patted her shoulders, “Hard as a sailor’s cock!”

“Uh, Rudy?” Finn gestured behind Rudy’s back. Rudy turned to see three of himself, standing in line from where he’d stood a moment ago to where he stood now.

“Oh bollocks not this shit again.” the four Rudys all groaned at once. All four jumped in surprise, then grinned.

“Aw nice one!” the first Rudy said, “They’re all me. Shit man I can see out 4 pairs of eyes. One man, four bodies. Check this shit out!”

The other three Rudys dove into an approximation of the Charlie’s Angels pose.

“Wait so Jess could see through shit and now she can move clean through it. Rudy had a doppelganger and now he’s got 4 bodies. Does this mean all our powers just got leveled up?” Finn asked, bewildered.

“Seems that way.” Alex replied, looking himself up and down to see if anything was different.

“Maybe you can take powers by suckin’ people off now.” Finn offered.

“Prick.” Alex retorted with a sneer.

“Hey, hey chill out guys. You see what this means? This is bloody destiny.” Rudy said excitedly as he stepped forward and reabsorbed his extra bodies, “We wanted to be superheroes and we got proper superhero powers. That’s what this means.”

“I think it means you’re gonna be able to do some wild shit in bed.” Abbey added.

“Hey mind your business.” Jess snapped. Rudy gave her a wink and she shot back a silent “Behave.”

“I wonder if I actually got a power beyond just existing this time.” Abbey said dreamily.

“Look I just know one thing.” Alex said, “The storm fucked everything up the first time. Everything’s going to be double fucked now.”

“We’ve got work to do.” Rudy intoned dramatically.

Jess dropped through the roof again.


	2. The Devil's in the Details

**THE PAST**

“Lucy?” Simon called.

The dark haired girl spun and regarded him with her wide eyes.

“Simon?” she responded, “What are you doing here?”

“Its kind of a long story.” Simon answered, “But I heard you were off the unit and in a movie?”

Lucy smiled, warmly, in a way Simon had never seen her smile before. He remembered how recently, from her perspective, their last encounter at the police station would have been. He was a bit taken aback by her transformation.

“Yeah I met this guy Dev at an art therapy workshop. He’s a filmmaker.” Lucy explained, “Turns out an actor who can look and sound like anyone is really useful when you’re making a film.”

Simon glanced around the vacant lot at the cameras and lighting equipment being tinkered with by a cadre of film students. He wondered if in another life he might have been with them, making something of his video hobby.

A skinny, olive-skinned young man in a red beanie jogged over.

“Lucy, we’re going to try that last scene again, but can you be young Cary Grant this time?” he asked.

Lucy nodded, her eyes went dark, and she contorted into a perfect approximation of an Arsenic and Old Lace era Cary Grant. She (He? Nathan still found himself dazzled by her power.) pointed at Simon.

“Dev, this is my friend Simon.” she explained, “Simon, this is Dev. Our director.”

Simon shook Dev’s hand. The director beamed.

“I’ve heard loads about you, Simon. You’re a bit of an AV geek yourself aren’t you?” Dev asked.

“Haha yeah I suppose,” Simon said, rubbing the back of his neck, “Just got a few YouTube videos up. Next to no views. I was actually hoping I could ask you for some advice on something.”

“Yeah man shoot.” Dev said.

“Lucy was telling me you’re doing a big finale where the wife burns the house to the ground and the husband burns up. How are you pulling off the burn effect? I’m doing this Pompeii thing and I was hoping to do a fire effect with one of my mates rather than a dummy.” Simon had improvised his justification for the question on the walk over.

“Oh its all flame retardant gel, man.” Dev answered, waving Simon over as he opened a case full of tubes of gel, “You coat the stunt man’s skin in this stuff, spray his clothes down with a flame retardant solution, then cover all of that in an accelerant. Flames burn all over the guy and he comes out the other side no worse for the wear. Its awesome. If you do it right you can’t even see the gel beforehand. Looks totally real.”

“That’s amazing!” Simon nearly gasped, “Where can I buy some?”

“Shit man, I’ll give you enough for a couple good burns. You have to buy this stuff in bulk so I’ve got way more than I need for this shoot.” Dev replied, “Lucy said you really helped her out back in the day, so consider it even. I throw you some of this fire goo and you give me the ultimate star.”

“Seriously? I can’t thank you enough for this, Dev.” Simon said.

“Hey think nothing of it my man. Now excuse me, we’ve got to get this done and get out of here quick. No permits. Full guerrilla style shit! Nice meeting you man!” Dev ran off back to the set to yell at a lighting tech.

Simon looked up at Lucy, still in Cary Grant mode, and tried to read her expression through the shapeshifted mask as he packed the gel in his bag.

“You seem a lot better than last time I saw you.” he said. Cary Grant’s winning smile shone back at him.

“I feel a lot better. Dev’s given me a purpose. I have friends and a job and a life now. And Simon I am so, so sorry for what I did to you.”

Simon patted her on the shoulder, “Its all okay, Lucy. We’re both looking forward now, right? No sense worrying about the past.” He shouldered his bag and stood, “See you around, eh?”

“Definitely.” Lucy replied warmly.

Simon walked off the lot and down a long, cracked sidewalk. His mind throbbed with anxiety. The weight of his choices and the consequences they might have felt like a transport truck resting on his shoulders. He was certainly not done worrying about the past.

* * *

**THE PRESENT**

“Oh come on, love. Its alright.” Rudy said, attempting a reassuring tone as he leaned on the locked bathroom door, “We can always try again.”

Jess sobbed, stomping the negative pregnancy test and lowering herself to the floor.

“Its not... You don’t understand.”

“I don’t understand a lot of things, Jess, you gotta explain.”

Jess reached over and unlocked the door. Rudy tentatively pushed it open.

“What’s going on?” he asked, “What’s got you so gutted?”

“This is going to sound really fucked up.” Jess said, “I don’t want you to get angry.”

“You killed me angry side with a pair of scissors, love. You’ve got nowt to worry about there.” Rudy joked. Jess laughed and wiped away a tear.

“Okay. So I’m just going to get it all out. My future self from that fucked up other world told me that I had to shag that guy Luke so I could have this baby she had in the future. But I guess it didn’t take and I fucking killed him so now that little future baby is never going to be born.”

Rudy stared at her, a little lost.

“Future baby?”

“Yeah like a baby from the future.” Jess replied, distracted from her feelings by his endearing confusion. She could see gears turning in his head.

“Alright listen I’m not exactly pleased as punch about the whole fucking and murdering some other bloke thing. Not that I’d want you to murder me, mind you, but you get me sentiment. But I guess where time travel shit’s involved all the normal rules go out the window so I’m just not going to get angry because its time shit and its storm shit and its not worth it." Rudy’s rambling was lightening Jess’s mood significantly. "Did I tell you about my time travelling mate from back in the day?” 

“Who, Curtis?” she asked.

“No no, not Curtis. He’d gone cold turkey on the time travel thing by the time I met him. I’m talking about Simon, the starey kid. Loved that little fucker.”

“You’ve had two time travelling mates?”

“What, is there a one per customer policy on ‘em?”

Jess smiled.

“No I suppose not. So what about this Simon?”

Rudy put on a very serious face, which had the usual effect of making him look extremely un-serious.

“Simon was the sharpest bloke I ever knew and he knew that time travel shit in and out. Fuckin’ Doctor Who in cheap trainers. And he told me that if you want to make things right like they were in the future, you gotta get every little tiny cunt of a detail just right or it all goes to shit. He went back in time to make sure we’d all be alright and he had to do absolutely everything just the same as his future self did when he was his past self. Or maybe it was the other way around?”

“You’re losing me.” Jess sighed. Rudy waved the thought away.

“The point is, if you got this big message from the future that your future self never got, there’s no way you would have had that baby anyway. All those millions of little spermy fuckers swimming, you’re never going to get the same one twice. It would have just been some other baby from that fuckin’ bastard and you’d never have known. It were a lost cause from the beginning.” he explained.

Jess took a moment to process this. She felt a weight lift. She’d never met this baby her future self was so keen to save. She’d never known this man her future self had insisted she fuck and kill. In fact she’d sort of felt it was a little much for her future self to expect of her. But her future self was gone now. She’d never exist. And neither would her baby. It was a relief more than anything. She looked over at Rudy.

“How come you can’t figure out how to get the wifi working on your phone, but you can talk all this shit about time travel?”

He scratched the back of his head.

“Time travel’s more important than wifi. At least I think. Anyway you want a baby, you’ve got a stud right here who can make that happen.” Rudy wiggled his eyebrows flirtatiously.

“Alright you big slut, go assume the position.” Jess laughed.

“Wahey!” Rudy cheered, tossing his shirt aside as he jogged into the bedroom. Jess tossed the pregnancy test in the bin and followed. 

"Time to start looking forward." she whispered.


End file.
